Surging oil and natural gas production brought on by hydraulic fracturing is lifting the U.S. economy by lowering energy costs for consumers and manufacturers, according an industry-funded report.

In 2012, the energy boom supported 2.1 million jobs, added almost $75 billion in federal and state revenues, contributed $283 billion to the gross domestic product and lifted household income by more than $1,200, according to the report released today from IHS CERA. The competitive advantage for U.S. manufacturers from lower fuel prices will raise industrial production by 3.5 percent by the end of the decade, said the report from CERA, which provides business advice for energy companies.

“What really surprised me was how powerful an impact it is having to such a broad base of the economy,” John Larson, vice president of economics and public sector consulting for IHS CERA and lead author of the report, said in an interview. “It makes it to me a story that all Americans really need to come to grips with and understand.”

Oil and gas production are near record levels as a result of hydraulic fracturing or fracking, a drilling technique that frees trapped hydrocarbons by injecting water, sand and chemicals into shale rock. Some environmental groups say tougher controls over the process are needed to prevent water contamination and leakage of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

So how much has Obama's billions in subsidies to green energy helped raise incomes (other than rich crony tycoons like Al Gore) ?

Less than zero; Obama has taken taxpayers money or more to the point borrowed money we dont have, to support failure....Your subsidized electric Chevy Volt is a 'shocking' failure.

Who would have thunk that a consulting group paid to produce this study by the same companies that stand to benefit from an increase in hydraulic fracturing would come to the conclusion that fracking represents a potential windfall for the average american pocketbook.

Who would have thunk that a consulting group paid to produce this study by the same companies that stand to benefit from an increase in hydraulic fracturing would come to the conclusion that fracking represents a potential windfall for the average american pocketbook.

I tells ya, this is MINDBLOWING!

The industry itself funded the study, true enough.

Would that you had any of the same cynicism for the 'studies' provided by the Government in defense of its failures...and thinktanks funded by those benefitting from more Government spending...

Hey CLC, would you believe a report by a non-profit, investigative journalism group with no skin in the game?

How Oil and Gas Drillers Avoid Paying Royalties to Landowners

Income from oil and gas production doesn’t always trickle down to landowners, as companies find ways to minimize the share they pay in royalties.

In many cases, lawyers and auditors who specialize in production accounting tell ProPublica energy companies are using complex accounting and business arrangements to skim profits off the sale of resources and increase the expenses charged to landowners.

From Pennsylvania to North Dakota, a powerful argument for allowing extensive new drilling has been that royalty payments would enrich local landowners, lifting the economies of heartland and rural America. The boom was also supposed to fill the government’s coffers, since roughly 30 percent of the nation’s drilling takes place on federal land.

Over the last decade, an untold number of leases were signed, and hundreds of thousands of wells have been sunk into new energy deposits across the country.

But manipulation of costs and other data by oil companies is keeping billions of dollars in royalties out of the hands of private and government landholders, an investigation by ProPublica has found.

ProPublica was founded by prominent Democratic contributor and has direct connections to some of the nation’s top news organizations from The New York Times to ABC News. ProPublica was also the organization that received leaked IRS tax forms related to conservative groups. ProPublica admitted “they should not have been sent to us before they were approved.”

Reporter Kim Barker wrote both articles criticizing conservative nonprofits and even went on CBS to detail that criticism. In her first story, she criticized two conservative organizations and no liberal groups. “Campaign-finance reform advocates say the spending by the two organizations highlights the role anonymous money is playing in this election, which will be the most expensive in history,” she wrote.

For one thing, it belies how many households get and pay for their electricity in this country. Not every rate payer is a beneficiary of cheap natural gas due to the way some utility contracts are structured, whether by towns, cities, metro areas, service providers, or other collectives which buy electricity on the wholesale energy market.

This means that a rural town in down-state Illinois can pay much more for its power than a metropolis like Chicago. (Coal plants muddy the waters further - literally and figuratively)

It also means that individual rate payers might see negligible differences in their bills regardless of how much natural gas is produced...much like the incremental changes at gas pumps due to global fluctuations in wholesale oil costs.

This is why retail energy prices spike quickly but decrease gradually, if at all.

Do you fellas realize that this $1,200 of additional revenuue is taxed?

Raise household incomes, leave tax rates alone, tax receipts go up.

Simple real world solution to your constant prattling about the solution requiring both cuts and revenue.

Do you realize that this $1200.00 is a fabrication, not verified by anyone other than the very groups lobbying for more fracking? Furthermore the "report" fails to mention the environmental impact of fracturing which has been extensive documented and verified. This is a dressed up press release, industry propaganda trying to buy influence in the same way they bought this "report"

Do you fellas realize that this $1,200 of additional revenuue is taxed?

Raise household incomes, leave tax rates alone, tax receipts go up.

Simple real world solution to your constant prattling about the solution requiring both cuts and revenue.

Do you realize that this $1200.00 is a fabrication, not verified by anyone other than the very groups lobbying for more fracking? Furthermore the "report" fails to mention the environmental impact of fracturing which has been extensive documented and verified. This is a dressed up press release, industry propaganda trying to buy influence in the same way they bought this "report"

"fabrication" is a strong word to represent this estimate. I actually think it is low.

The "environmental impact" of fracking has been well documented, and found to be nonexistent.

You just don't want to solve this country's problems, and you want to stop others from doing so. Come to think of it, I think your problem is that this solution doesn't come from government, and therefore, in your eyes, is bad.

For one thing, it belies how many households get and pay for their electricity in this country. Not every rate payer is a beneficiary of cheap natural gas due to the way some utility contracts are structured, whether by towns, cities, metro areas, service providers, or other collectives which buy electricity on the wholesale energy market.

This means that a rural town in down-state Illinois can pay much more for its power than a metropolis like Chicago. (Coal plants muddy the waters further - literally and figuratively)

It also means that individual rate payers might see negligible differences in their bills regardless of how much natural gas is produced...much like the incremental changes at gas pumps due to global fluctuations in wholesale oil costs.

This is why retail energy prices spike quickly but decrease gradually, if at all.

The progressives hated nemesis, the free market, supply and demand; the more oil and gas the US produces, the better for all of us. That they cannot deny, but try to, anyway.

Imagine not being reliant upon Middle East oil !

The fracking revolution is fantastic news....Except those who want taxpayers to fund failed windmills and solar panels and electric cars...for the benefit of Al Gore-type green energy plutocrats.

ProPublica was founded by prominent Democratic contributor and has direct connections to some of the nation’s top news organizations from The New York Times to ABC News. ProPublica was also the organization that received leaked IRS tax forms related to conservative groups. ProPublica admitted “they should not have been sent to us before they were approved.”

Reporter Kim Barker wrote both articles criticizing conservative nonprofits and even went on CBS to detail that criticism. In her first story, she criticized two conservative organizations and no liberal groups. “Campaign-finance reform advocates say the spending by the two organizations highlights the role anonymous money is playing in this election, which will be the most expensive in history,” she wrote.

There are ideological imbeciles and then there's CLC.

ProPublica will soon hire 24 reporters and editors to create one of investigative journalism's largest staffs. Based in New York City and led by former Wall Street Journal managing editor Paul Steiger,

David Gergen, who served during the administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton.

In 2010, it also received a two-year contribution of $125,000 each year from the Open Society Foundations (The Soros connection). That $125,000/year amounted to 1% of ProPublica's budegt of$12 million annually.

More caterwauling by the wingnuts as they play their victim card.

Apparently to wingnuts with delicate sensibilities like CLC, any criticism of any whackjobs is out of bounds. Poor babies.

ProPublica has only 1% funded by Soros, you say? Nice spin.

Well, two of ProPublica's other financial backers, Herbert and Marion Sandler, "fund both leftist causes and the Democratic Party"....and all other funding comes from the usual leftwing "charitable groups"....

For one thing, it belies how many households get and pay for their electricity in this country. Not every rate payer is a beneficiary of cheap natural gas due to the way some utility contracts are structured, whether by towns, cities, metro areas, service providers, or other collectives which buy electricity on the wholesale energy market.

This means that a rural town in down-state Illinois can pay much more for its power than a metropolis like Chicago. (Coal plants muddy the waters further - literally and figuratively)

It also means that individual rate payers might see negligible differences in their bills regardless of how much natural gas is produced...much like the incremental changes at gas pumps due to global fluctuations in wholesale oil costs.

This is why retail energy prices spike quickly but decrease gradually, if at all.

The progressives hated nemesis, the free market, supply and demand; the more oil and gas the US produces, the better for all of us. That they cannot deny, but try to, anyway.

Imagine not being reliant upon Middle East oil !

The fracking revolution is fantastic news....Except those who want taxpayers to fund failed windmills and solar panels and electric cars...for the benefit of Al Gore-type green energy plutocrats.

NO.

Either you didn't read or you don't understand a single word I wrote.

Again, you prove unable to cogently address energy issues in this country, which are far more complex and serpentine than your simplistic arguments even dream of.

All you want to say is "Yay, Fracking!!" But somehow, you end up saying less.

Where are your puerile "crony capitalist" sneers re: fracking...?? Have you been sniffing too much of their gas...?

All you want to say is "Yay, Fracking!!" But somehow, you end up saying less.

Where are your puerile "crony capitalist" sneers re: fracking...?? Have you been sniffing too much of their gas...?

Natural gas prices have fallen between 12 to 32 percent since 2008. And because of increased domestic oil production, there's less being imported. This has shaved $31.6 billion from the national trade deficit.

All you want to say is "Yay, Fracking!!" But somehow, you end up saying less.

Where are your puerile "crony capitalist" sneers re: fracking...?? Have you been sniffing too much of their gas...?

Natural gas prices have fallen between 12 to 32 percent since 2008. And because of increased domestic oil production, there's less being imported. This has shaved $31.6 billion from the national trade deficit.

All you want to say is "Yay, Fracking!!" But somehow, you end up saying less.

Where are your puerile "crony capitalist" sneers re: fracking...?? Have you been sniffing too much of their gas...?

Natural gas prices have fallen between 12 to 32 percent since 2008. And because of increased domestic oil production, there's less being imported. This has shaved $31.6 billion from the national trade deficit.

The flexibility and ingenuity of the free market and free enterprise beats the statists every time.

OK, fine. Lower trade deficit since 2008. (Fracking has been around for decades. Only took a little 'oil pressure' to cough up the capital to start using it in earnest.)

But that's miles apart from the disingenuous thread title, assertion and astroturf you burped up here.

So, maybe figure out your argument first before showing it in public.

And unfortunately, the rampant methane (i.e. carbon) leakage from fracking wells - along with newer coal-burning plants - have pretty much wiped out any carbon savings from the natural gas boom.

This is the thanks we get for pointing out that fracking is good for everybody, puts more money in everyone's pocket, keeps us warm, and raises the revenue that the liberals always crow about when discussing the deficit. I'm waiting for a liberal to say good job, and instead we get flack.